Stitches: A Short Story

As I ran, I felt my foot come down on top of a moss filled rock, and I knew I was in trouble. The slick moss ripped away from the slab of granite and it sent me flying. I knew the fall would be inevitable, and took the it as best I could and prayed for some luck. Branches ripped apart my face, snapping from the contact. Blood flicked up into my eyes. My shoulder made contact with the trunk of a tree as the rest of my body dug into the mud. My legs flipped up over me, crashing into piece of granite bulging out of the ground, pain traveled its way up my leg.

The momentum forces me to stumble down. I fall on my back, the air knocked out of me. I lay for a moment, attempting to catch my breathe. As I learn to breath again, a heavy thing falls on me. My vision is blocked as a handful of black hair lands on my face. Next to my ear is a set of lips.

We sat silently in the car for a couple minutes until Audrey looked at me and said, “I cannot believe that just happened.”

My eyes suddenly open from the impact of pots and pans beating against each other, it was like fireworks exploding. I turned around to look at the clock it was only 3:00 in the morning, I sighed as I didn’t want to be awake this early in the morning. I stood up from the slab of concrete that I was sleeping on and looked around to see Madison still half asleep as she was looking around to see where the loud noise had come from.

    “Wake up Mommy,” said Taylor through her tears as she hugged my mom’s twitching body.

I have had stitches before, in my head, but I did not know that one collosal mistake could cost me my entire summer of getting wet and showering. It was summer in Michigan, and I was at my Grandmother’s house for camping, like my brothers and I do every year. This year, I was excited because my father had let us bring our bikes to ride around.

The graphic novel Stitches was a great book. The story was told with seriousness and humor at the same time, a perfect combination. Many people can compare their childhood experiences to David's to a curtain extent. The main thing I can relate to is unfair treatment; being the youngest in my family. My sisters always get whatever they want while I have to get a job and pay for my own stuff. During the middle of the book David walked into his mom's room at the wrong time and was shocked at what he saw. When I was younger I did the same and walked in on my parents at the wrong time, I had the same reaction as David, but instead I ran out of there a.s.a.p. I honestly felt bad for David on multiple occasions during the book, his life just kept

Abruptly, I cramped uncontrollably forward like having my appendix burst. Without warning my legs collapsed. I dropped knees first to the floor. I groaned as my chest slammed into the terrain.

My foot struck an object and I kicked it, sending it skidding. I could feel it give way a little to the force of my foot. After that, I shuffled my feet in an effort not to trip on anything else I might find. Danger was in the farthest corner, whimpering. I found him, traced my way towards the handle of his harness, and guided us out of the house.

“Please sir, worry about yourself for once! We need to get you to a hospital, fast.” I could still feel tears trickling down my face.

Looking form the corner of my eye, I tried to steady myself trying to comprehend where I was and what had happened. When everything had stopped I dragged myself from under the crushed heap of metal and managed to get onto my feet. Alone with no one to help I decided to find shelter so I dragged my feet along the slippery wet road in the dark, stormy weather. Pushing my way through the howling wind the painful throbbing of all my injuries was making my weak body unable to continue to walk up the road in the drenched, heavy clothes that I was

While they were trying to close the crack that was on my forehead by stitching it, I kept moving so they had to put me into a jacket that had straps. Like in asylums they have that weird jacket so the patient don’t attack or something. Yeah, those jackets similar to that. I got 7 stitches on my forehead. 7 stitches! I thought it wasn’t that big of a cut.

He grabbed me and threw me into the cabin. I yelped from the pain. Pap walked in and and sat down. “Can’t remember the feeling o’ pain, can you, boy?”

“Um… Um…” I stammered. I didn’t know what to say. Then someone threw a rock at me. Everyone else followed. I was being pelted with rocks. My head pounded. My legs were sore. Then I got thrown back into a building from a rock that hit my stomach.

It was a dark, windy night in Keokuk, Iowa where I grew up. It was right after my step dad left to go see his grandma in the Iowa City hospital. He left his BB gun on top of the fridge where only my mom could reach it and my mom was in the middle of giving the dog a bath.